Swim Lesson #11

Bukit Jalil, 6.15-8pm+

• Warm-up 800m
• 1 x 100m with paddle + buoy
• 1 x 100m with paddle
• 1 x 100m with paddle + buoy
• 2 x 100m normal
• 3 x (4 x 50m) hard with 20s rest after each 50
• 3 x 300m normal
• 1 x 100m (race) in 1:49 (new PB!)
• 1 x 100m cool-down

TOTAL = 3,000m

Plonker Of The Day

The stupidity of certain people continues to amaze me. Especially people like Mr Pearson here, who as a judge in a certain large North American country, should know better.

US man loses $54m trousers claim

Roy Pearson said his rights had been violated

A US man has lost a $54m (£27m) claim against a South Korean dry-cleaning firm which lost a pair of his trousers.

Roy Pearson, a judge of administrative law, claimed that Custom Cleaners had violated the Consumer Protection Act.

By refusing to pay him $1,000 (£500) after losing his trousers, they failed to honour a pledge to provide "Satisfaction Guaranteed", he argued.

But a Washington judge dismissed the case, which drew international attention, awarding the cleaners costs.

Legal groups have said the case, which has dragged on for two years and involved thousands of hours of legal investigative work, has damaged the image of the US judicial system.

'American nightmare'

The National Labor Relations Board has called for Mr Pearson to be disbarred so that he can no longer serve as a judge.

His case began in 2005 when Mr Pearson took several suits to his local dry-cleaners in Washington to have some alterations made.

When he returned two days later, a pair of trousers was missing.

The South Korean family running the dry-cleaners, the Chungs, said they found the missing trousers a few days later and tried to return them but Mr Pearson insisted they were not his.

His multimillion dollar calculations for damages included the 1,400 hours he says he spent preparing the case.

According to the Washington Post, he also added the cost of hiring a car every weekend to enable him to drive to an alternative dry-cleaners for the next 10 years.

The Chungs' lawyer, Chris Manning, said that the protracted case had transformed the family's American dream into "the American nightmare", according to the AP.

He said the family, who own three dry-cleaners in the Washington area, were considering returning to South Korea.

Breast Is Not Best

Well well well!

I surprised myself last night by managing to swim 1500m front-crawl at Bukit Jalil in 35:29, a mere 17 seconds slower than my best breaststroke effort! As you can see from yesterdays post I was only aiming to beat 40 minutes! This was the first time I'd done 1500m continuously in a pool. The only other times I've managed to do that was in the Kenyir Tri and the recent PD Tri Clinic.

Coach Peh was spying on me as he was coaching others, and he said that in 2 weeks I'd be able to do 34 minutes.......so that's it......new target....same again but in under 34:00 by 9 July 07. (That's 2:16 per 100m)

I now think that the Kenyir swim might actually have been the full 1500m. At the time I thought it was short as my time was 37mins-ish, but judging from last night perhaps it was about right.

I must admit I'm pretty impressed with my week-by-week improvement, but I guess that's because I'm still on the steep bit of the learning curve and my improvements will begin to slow done. Anyway it's great that I'm already only 29s away from a 2-month old target that I only planned to achieve before the end of 2007. I'm now thinking about improving to 30:00 by the end of the year.

That's enough time to beat Bernard in an Olympic Tri!!! Watch out Bernard, here I come!

Quiet

Mmmmm.... been a bit quiet in the last 5 days or so.

After last Wednesday's swim I didn't do any training for the next 2 days, but made up for it on Saturday by getting up early enough for a 34km ride to work. A lunch swim was ruled out by a hearty Thai lunch with my work team chums and ex-secretary, which was burned off nicely by a 15km run after work that more than made up for 2 days inactivity.

That was my longest ever training run and I'm quite proud of myself too!! I did exactly the same route as the Pacesetters 15km run that I missed in May. My time was 1:38:something which is 7 minutes faster than my 2006 run, and with a 5% lower HR (151 average compared to 159 in 2006). I took it quite easy throughout the run.

The lovely runner's high kicked in at just over an hour. This makes me think that doing 1-hour 10km runs is a waste as I stop running just at the point where the "reward" is just round the corner.

For the first time in a long long time I did nothing on Sunday. I'd planned to do 1500m at Uniten Pool but was too lazy. In the end I went for a Fathers Day lunch at the Eurasian Club with Lucas, Dad-in-law and various uncles, and then took Lucas to watch Surf's Up.


Evening - MotoGP (my man Stoner winning again) and the most excellent V For Vendetta!

My 1-day weekend is over and it's back to work....I'll do my postponed 1500m swim tonight after work. This will be my first benchmark for a continuous 1500m front-crawl pool swim. 40mins or less would be pleasing...I'll keep you posted.

Swim Lesson #10

Bukit Jalil 6.15-8pm

Warm-up 1000m.

Warm-up included a few sub 2:10 100m's and a couple of 0:55 50m's with much less effort and a more controlled stroke than my recent thrashing-about efforts. My last lessons (2 weeks ago) one arm only drills have really helped me rotate more and get the recovering shoulder out of the water more = more continuous stroke.

Main Set

4 x 100m hard with paddles

100m easy w/o paddles

6 x 50m hard (increasing effort within each 50) with paddles and pull buoy

3 x 100 with/100 without pull buoy

The final 3 x 100with/100without buoy seemed to really help streamline my body i.e. get legs up to horiz. position. - I could feel lower back arching more than usual.

Warm-down 100m = 100

TOTAL = 2500m (I think!) - could well have been a few '00m more.

Shallow End

Shallow End

After weeks of thinking about it, (Should I? Shouldn't I?!!) I finally took the plunge and started ordering parts for my new bike, which I plan to unveil to the World in August at the Desaru Long-Distance Triathlon. I've ordered a pair or 50mm deep section carbon wheels from the UK, complete with bags, tubular tyres, titanium skewers etc... and a couple of carbon bottle cages...

I'll have a fitting session in Singapore at the end of July, where I'll buy the frame. The Dura-Ace groupset and all other components will come from Edwin. It's going to be an all-black mean machine with yellow bar tape to make it look menacing to others like a poison-arrow frog!!

Hopefully I'll get a couple of short rides on it in before the first big test on 12 August (Desaru Tri) - to get everything all set for my main event of the year - S'pore Half-Ironman on 2 Sept.

Titiwangsa Run

As part of my plan to squeeze a bit more training into each week, and a desire to update my blog with a new PB, I went for a short 6km run around Lake Titiwangsa after work yesterday and... I managed a new PB time of 35:21 (17:50+17:31), over 2 minutes faster than my previous best set about 6 months ago.

All Excited

Now I've taken the plunge with my new bike, I thought I'd better start thinking about crank length, cassette ratios etc... so I checked my current bike. (Warning - Tech talk ahead folks).

I've always thought that my gearing was 52/42 with a 12-25 cassette, explaining why most cycling companions have it easier on climbs on newer bikes with a slightly smaller 39 chainring. However to my surprise it turns out that my bike is 53/39 and 13-23. No wonder I struggle a bit on long or steep climbs - I always thought I had a 25 for that, but its only 23! That means I climbed Genting on a 39 x 23! Wow!

So anyway my conclusion is that my new bike will also be 53/39 but with a 12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-21-23 10-speed cassette. And it'll have to be the biggest size - XL (57cm). That's 3cm smaller that my current steed but that's normal these days now that seatposts are strong enough to be longer.

Playing Catch Up

After last weeks training was almost non-existent due to injury, I did some catching-up at the weekend...

Sat a.m. Ride to Work:

16km in 28:26 @ 33.76kph - WORLD RECORD PACE!!

Sat lunchtime swim:

Warm Up - 200m
Main Set - 13 x 100m on 2:50. [Pace varied 2:05-2:16]
Warm-down - 100m
TOTAL: 1600m

Sun a.m. Tri Simulation (PD)

Swim 1500m - ??? (forgot to time myself)
Ride 40km - 1:22:00
Run 9km - 51mins+

SWIM:

I had a great morning in PD yesterday at the Triathlon "clinic". It was basically a non-competitive almost full Olympic Tri, with a relaxed atmosphere and very social 10 minute+ transitions.

Pre-swim briefing (me on the left)

It was an open-water sea swim, with the middle 900m or so in the calm marina waters. The waves were perhaps 0.5m which added a bit of a rollercoaster ride to the affair. I managed crawl all the way except for a few seconds here and there for sighting and turns. After 300m the group I was with had to turn 90 degrees right as we'd veered too far left on the first buoy. Lesson - just because a swimming group forms doesn't mean they are going the right way!!

After that I was alone. Salty water, but no sign of the deisel that I'd heard so much about. The halfway turn took a long time to appear so I guess the swim was a good 1500m. This was the first time I've clearly noticed the difference in buoyancy between a pool and salt-water. Breathing seemed quite easy. The return leg had the added task of avoiding oncoming swimmers, but once I'd passed them successfully it was full steam ahead (half steam actually) to the finish.

I don't know how long I took but for me the satisfaction is that I did my first ever front crawl sea swim in (almost) race conditions.

BIKE:

After a lengthy transition we set off as a group, with police escort. The first 7km were very easy and I had a nice chat with Sam Pritchard. He's off to spend some time at his house in the French Alps soon, and will be able to watch Le Tour De France pass by - I am very jealous!!

After that it was a free for all and the strong riders slowly rode into the distance. I rode at my own pace as usual and Arif caught me at about 15km. There were some other rider around us and I settled into a routine of being overtaken on the inclines, catching-up on the downhills and then taking the "lead" again on the flats. A wee bit of drafting too was fun. The u-turn was at exactly 20km according to me. On the way back the crosswinds seemed to increase and it rained lightly before we entered PD. From km25-35 I tired a bit but seemed to get a second wind after that and managed a few km of speed work towards the end. Considering the easy first 7km and an uncommonly strong crosswind, I finished the full 40km ride in a satisfying 1:22:00.

Business talk - with Edwin in transition

RIDE:

Again after a lengthy transition - Arif, Bernard, Jason Foo and I set off for the 9km run. My left thigh was still feeling the effects of last weeks hash but only just.

My pace was slower than usual (1st gear as opposed to 2nd) but I felt very good on the run and really enjoyed it. On the way back I moved into 2nd gear (0.001kph faster!) and managed a nice sprint to finish off with. Out - 26m+, In - 25min+.


I stayed back for a while afterwards, chit-chatting and being one of many interviewed by Jessica from NTV7 for a slot on The Breakfast Show in July sometime. Then 'twas lucky draw time and - believe it or not - I won something! - 2 months free membership of a gym. I might go when Lucas is on holiday (when I don't have to drive home to school) and I have time for some early a.m. treadmill work. A few rowing sessions wouldn't go amiss.

This was a great morning, a very satisfying workout with a bunch of pals - I could feel the endorphins flowing during the run!

Sorry to say that it looks like the Siemens 10km Run on 8 July will have to be relegated to my "Other & TBC" calendar as there'll be another Tri clinic in PD on that day.

Another difficult choice is Batang Kali Uphill TT v King Of The Road 21km on 5 August!

Fox In Socks

Lucas and I had a good laugh reading this book, which I just bought from Kinokuniya, a bookshop in KLCC that I seem to end up in every Friday on my way back home from work by LRT.

The book begins by introducing the main characters, the Fox and Mr. Knox, and some props (a box and a pair of socks). Throughout the book the Fox tries to get Knox to say extremely difficult tongue-twisters that progress in complexity, culminating in a description of a Tweetle Beetle Battle:

"Now, when Tweetle Beetles fight, it's called a Tweetle Beetle Battle.

And when they battle in a puddle, it's a Tweetle Beetle Puddle Battle.

AND when Tweetle Beetles battle with paddles in a puddle, they call it a Tweetle Beetle Puddle Paddle Battle.

AND when Beetles battle Beetles in a Puddle Paddle Battle, and the beetle battle's puddle is a puddle in a bottle, they call this a Tweetle Beetle Bottle Puddle Paddle Battle Muddle.

AND when Tweetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles, and the bottle's on a poodle, and the poodle's eating noodles, they call this a Muddle Puddle Tweetle Poodle Beetle Noodle Bottle Paddle Battle."

ah! what fun! I love Dr. Seuss (and so does Lucas)


The illustrations are great too.

Essential Children's Reading

WARNING! This post contains an image of drugs being prepared for use, homophobia, a helpful policeman and a reference to sex...




For non-UK folks, an ASBO is an Anti-Social Behaviour Order issued to naughty kids (and adults) who annoy their neighbours and do all sorts of bad things.

Decision

I'm going to PD on Sunday. The Fakawi TT is under 8km and even if I cycle there and back, about 50km, I reckon an S-B-R session is more worthwhile.

My legs should be ok by then. After the Tuesday night ride Karen said that it must have been the steep downhill running in Sunday's Hash that has strained my legs - severely!

I think she's right, despite literally struggling to walk, my cycling muscles were ok for a very slow ride on Tuesday night. However even today, I'm still struggling with going down slopes or stairs - it is that bad!!

Hope to be ok by Sunday for running. I missed last nights swim and might only do a turbo session tonight whilst watching Vino climb Mont Ventoux in Stage 4 of the Dauphine Libere.

So not much training this week. I feel bad - withdrawal symptoms.

Decisions Decisions!

Not enough weekends to fit in all the events I want to join!!!!

This Sunday - Batu 14 Uphill TT or Port Dickson Swim-Bike-Run???

I'm inclined towards going to PD...

Legbreaker

I found myself in a highly unusual situation for a Sunday yesterday morning - I was still in bed at 8.50am. By that time the previous Sunday morning I had already cycled almost 70km and was heading into Bentong.

So I had a nice lie-in and later in the morning took Lucas out to ride his bike (he's getting better every time now - and I am becoming less nervous about him falling off) and then we had a quick go on his (and my) new favourite game - Super Mario 64. We've got 16 Gold Stars now!! Hooray!


I then realised that time was running out for me to pack and head off to Ulu Yam for the 10th Annual KL Full Moon "Ballbreaker" Hash.

Ballbreaker

We set-off just after 1pm. The first check took a long time to break and had a false trail. The subsequent checks also took some time to break, and I was a bit annoyed that hardly anyone was calling or answering my calls (calling is shouting out to ascertain if people are still on the paper trail or not).

An early river crossing filled my shoes with gravel that made the rest of the run rather uncomfortable but luckily my feet bore up quite well. I stopped once to "de-gravel" my shoes once. The shoe soles that I had glued back on the night before only lasted about 20 minutes before they came off again!

The first sector included a 300m high climb and took over 2 hours. The second sector was less strenuous but had some pretty steep trails - and great views. Due to the delays in the first sector I finished sector 2 at about 1710hrs, 25mins after the supposed cut-off time. The third sector was the easiest and fastest and I actually managed to do some running!

The rain made some of the trails pretty slippery, especially in the oil palm plantations. By this time I could sense that my much used and bleached socks, combined with gravel and water sloshing around in them for 4 hours, were beginning to disintegrate, and indeed I was correct as you can now see for yourself..........

Mmmmmmmm...nice socks! They used to be white!

I finished the 25km in 5:24:57, some 45 minutes behind the front runner. There was over 1000' of climbing on this hash.

Hashers - 240
Distance - 25km
Ascent - >1000'
Checks - 15
Leeches - 0 (for me anyway)
Red Ant Bites - 1
2cm dia. bite on my arm from unknown creature - 1
Sliding down hill on bum - 1
Nearly Head over Heels - 3
Scratches on legs, especially inside heels - lots!
Totally ruined pairs of socks - 1
Beer after the run - 0
PowerGel - @ 1h44m and 2h15m

I didn't stretch properly afterwards so today I'm struggling to walk properly!

Sporting Success

On the sporting front, although I missed all the action as ASTRO was on the blink AGAIN due to evening rain, 'twas a good weekend for me. Bradley Wiggins won the Dauphine Libere prologue, Casey and his Ducati beat Rossi to win the MotoGP and Hammo won the Canadian GP. The only downer was that I wanted Federer to win the French Open...never mind!

Lovelianavic

My new favourite tennis star is in action tonight. She hasn't had the same effect on me that Gabriela Sabatini did when I was 14, but she makes pleasurable viewing nonetheless. I hope she beats Justine Henin, who I suspect is actually a small blonde man.

I don't think my missus reads this blog, and my Dad used to refer to Joanna "Lovely" Lumley, so I think I'm fairly safe with a post like this!!!

More Top Tips

I have always found Viz's "Top Tips" absolutely hilarious - here's some more gems from their website. If anyone "doesn't get them" I can explain - it's something to do with British humour and the wonderful thing that is sarcasm...

STATELY home owners. Sprinkle pepper into the helmets of suits of armour so as any intruders who hide in them when being chased will give themselves away by sneezing just after you walk past.

BOOKSHOP owners. Annoy Christians by putting the Bible in the 'Fiction' section of your shop where, joking aside, it actually belongs.

CONVINCE neighbours that you own an old fashioned typewriter by wearing metal thimbles and drumming your fingers on a plastic tray. Every ten seconds ting a wine glass with a pencil and run a butter knife along the teeth of a comb before continuing drumming your fingers.

OLD people. If you feel cold indoors this winter, simply pop outside for ten minutes without a coat. When you go back inside you will really feel the benefit.

OIL companies. Avoid having the general public pointing the global warming finger at you by putting some pictures of trees and flowers on your websites and adverts.

FED EX. Instead of the slogan you have painted on the sides of your lorries - "Your reputation in a box? We guarantee it...every time!" why not use the wording of clause 4.5 of your Standard Trading Conditions - "Whilst the Company shall use its reasonable endeavours to comply with any estimate given by the Company to the Customer, any delivery time (including date) given by or on behalf of the Company shall be an estimate only, time shall not be of the essence and shall not be binding upon the Company which shall be under no liability whatsoever, except as provided for in Clause 17, for failure to secure delivery of any Goods by any date or time howsoever caused," which more accurately reflects your approach to the punctual delivery of urgent packages.

BASEBALL cap manufacturers. Save the wearer the bother of turning your caps round by putting the peak on the other side.

Kids

The Scene: Lucas & I watching a scene from Tweenies about people being of different sizes.

Me - "You know Lucas, I think that one day you'll be bigger than me"
Lucas - "How can you say that? You'll be dead!"

Thanks Lucas!!!!!!!!

Dream Dream Dream

Sigh! - I'm in love with a dark, slim, hard-bodied beauty from the UK (with some Japanese blood)...

...the wedding will have to wait due to lack of funds, but hopefully we can tie the knot before the Singapore Half-Ironman.

Vital Stats:

Bust: Shimano Dura-Ace groupset
Waist: Planet X Carbon 50mm wheels
Hips: Planet X Stealth Carbon frame & forks

Something Fishy

The cult of Paris has been built around the whole World knowing everything about her private life - and she doesn't seem to mind this - but the details of the medical condition that led to her release from prison after just 3 full days aren't being disclosed for "privacy reasons".

I'm confused!

Swim Lesson #9

I was back at Bukit Jalil pool last night after a 2 week absence caused by (1) post-Duathlon lack of motivation and (2) Post-Kenyir illness last week.

My first 100m was truly awful and I thought I'd lost my technique, but it came back as I warmed up.

700m solo warm-up

25m right arm only 25m normal

25m left arm only 25 m normal

6 strokes right 6 left then normal (50m x 2)

Although I thought I did the drills very badly, they worked as intended by encouraging me to rotate my shoulders more.

Main Set

16 x 100m with increasing effort

1-4: average 2:20/100m, on 3:00.

5-8: average 2:15/100m, on 2:50.

9-12: average 2:10/100m, on 2:50.

13-16: average 2:05/100m, on 2:50. Last 2 x 100m were my fastest - 2:05 and 2:03.

200m cool-down.

Homework - same 16 x 100m as above.

Lessons from tonight:

Rotate shoulder more so that at full arm extension, opposite shoulder is out of the water. Reach forward fully. Stroke should feel fuller and more continuous with this rotation.

Keep shoulders down - face does not have to look down vertically to do this.

TOTAL DISTANCE = 2700m.

And finally I met a certain Mr Simon Cross tonight. As with everyone I've met so far in this Malaysian Triathlon Family, he seems like a nice friendly chap.

Bloody Moaning Minnies

Here we go again! Once again the Great British public and media are at it again, indulging lavishly in the National Pastime that is unabandoned criticism and complaining about one establishment or organisation or another, no doubt led by the press in their efforts to make a circulation-swelling mountain out of a molehill.

It's either the Health Service or Education (which most of the rest of the World envies) or the Government or the England football manager or the Millennium Dome or this or that or the next thing...

This time it's the 2012 London Olympics logo that is being savaged, probably because of the seemingly high cost and the fact that it has jagged edges instead of nice curves and straight lines that is all the fashion in current car design.

I for one think that the logo is fine and I give my full support to Lord Coe and his chums who are working to make the event a success. I'll proudly wave a flag with the logo on it when I'm in the velodrome in 2012 watching the GB cycling team crush all opposition in the track cycling!

Consider this fellow Brits - in many other countries around the World the real cost to the taxpayers of producing such an image might be, say, 200 grand, but nobody will tell you that the ad agency only got 20 grand and the rest was wasted due to incompetence or went into politicians pockets. You should be thankful that this sort of thing is disclosed to you by the Government.

Where is your patriotism and support????????????????????????? Come on! - stop moaning all the time!!

B 2 B (Back To Bentong)

In my efforts to become a Half-Ironman Hero in a couple of months I’m upping my biking mileage this year, so I had to leave my comfy bed at the ridiculously early hour of 5.40am to make it to Genting Sempah by 8am to join the Bentong ice-cream pilgrimage.

Unfortunately Ah Fook and I arrived 5 minutes late and so had to fly down the hill towards Bentong in the hope of catching the PCC peloton.

Despite a swift descent, to my surprise there was no sign of the speeding PCC boys and girls until we spotted Ah Fatt acting suspiciously at the Hot Springs. What was he up to I asked myself? Short-cutting by starting at the hot springs? Packing up after a 20min cruise down the hill? Going for a quick dip?

Alas there was a job to be done so Fook and I continued courageously but never did manage to catch the pack. I won’t mention that Fook fell off his bike upon arrival (forgot about feet being clipped to the pedals) as I don’t want to embarrass the poor lad!

After the usual ice cream and cendol for me, and fish balls for some, back we all headed towards Sempah. Now I’m getting to know the standard post-Bentong routine:

We all amble slowly to the traffic lights, talking about how nice the ice cream was.

A pack gradually forms on the slight hill just out of town.

Bernard “Nijdam” Tan breaks away on his own, never to be seen again!

We form a nice fast paceline in which I do a good but ultimately unsustainable stint at the front (until the road starts to rise) at which point…

I change back into 3^rd gear and get massively dropped by almost the entire bunch.

I overtake Mac about halfway up the hill. (This is a repeat of a recent Frasers ride)

However on this ride a certain Ivan ‘Basso” Chan threw the rule book away by attempting a stunning solo breakaway!! I’m not sure what happened to him though! I swear I have never seen him move soooooooo fast!!!

Stats for my own benefit:

140km in 5:59:58 @ slow kph.
Weight 77kg.
Heart rate surprisingly low today. I did almost the entire climb to Sempah at <145bpm.>

Astonishing

No school run today so I squeezed in a 6.5km run in KLCC park before work. Nothing too astonishing about that but...

The radio call-in subject this morning was why some women cannot leave their house without make-up. One woman called in to say that she has to wear make-up outside "in case I am mistaken for being a maid" - !!!!!!!!!!! I am stunned by this, but not surprised. I get the impression that maids are generally looked-upon as third-class citizens, if they are lucky enough to be treated as human.

It's World Environment Day today and although I can't confess to doing much to help today in particular, I do think it's a bit funny that a local actress is quoted by the press as saying that she will make "the ultimate sacrifice" by switching-off her Blackberry PDA for the day! Wow - what a contribution!

Enstek

Sorry but I really need to get this off my chest. It's Monday and I can't take it any more! It's been on my mind for about a year but the final straw came today when I travelled to work by LRT and once again had to face adverts for @Enstek.

@Enstek is another one of those property developments like those that starts with "i" or "e" to make you think that you are getting something amazingly modern and super high-tech when in actual fact it's the same bricks and mortar as 20-years ago, but with a broadband or wireless Internet connection.

The thing about @Enstek that gets to me more than most is the advertising. @Enstek is not just a house with some neighbours (if anyone chooses to live in the "suburb" of an airport) - it is, according to the ads, an "innovative lifestyle solution", offering a "new culture of living" and...wait for it...it is "the first knowledge-based planned community".

What the H*ll is a "knowledge-based" community??

From now on when people ask me what I do I won't say I'm a Civil Engineer - I'll say I'm a Dynamic and Innovative Knowledge-based Tech-savvy Construction Management Solutions Provider.

A 2-day Weekend - What's That?

I had 2 days off work at the weekend!!! Oh how I wish it was like that every weekend. With some luck I will soon be able to rejoin the normal World and only work 5 days a week.

Saturday

Lucas did his normal trick of waking up super-early even though he didn't have to go to school, and of course Daddy had to get up also to provide entertainment. Later in the a.m. we went off to Pasar Rakyat to plan our posh coach trip to Singapore for the OSIM tri at the end of July. We were too early to book yet but at least we know the prices and schedules now - and that they do have space for my bike in it's bag. I always plan well in advance - that's why my race number are normally very low or end with ..01 or ...02.

We then drove off to Joo Ngan Son in Damansara via the SMART tunnel (to show Lucas the tunnel). On the way Lucas declared that he wanted his favourite chicken rice for lunch and luckily enough we found a nice old Chinese food court place opposite the bike shop serving exactly what he wanted. Then it was time to visit Daddy's toy shop, where my accidentally credit card fell out of my wallet and I bought a new helmet...


It's a MET Stradivarius 199 and unlike my 9-year old Rudy Project number, it fits properly, is very light, isn't covered with messy sticky left over bits of race numbers, and is the same colour as my jersey.

After that we were heading home when Lucas noticed that we were near BSC, so he excitedly asked if he could go to the Kiz Sports. So with little else to do off we went. After a couple of rounds on the Scalextric track (I won Round 1, Lucas beat 3 other boys in Round 2) and a trip to the book shop for a mag for me, Lucas spent 1hr+ running around and playing while I read the mag. Then off home.

Didn't do much in the evening apart from prepare for a round-trip ride to Bentong. Couldn't even watch the Giro TT as Astro was on the blink.

Sunday

Up at 5.40am and met Ah Fook at the gates. Off we rode to meet the PCC guys at Genting Sempah at 8am. We were 5 mins late and didn't manage to catch the speeding pack, so we only met them in Bentong. As usual I never fail to enjoy my Sunday rides, although the last hour on my own was a bit boring - my lower back was aching and my legs were quite tired. Distance - 140km (Mum - that's 87 miles) in a fraction under 6 hours - 7 minutes slower than in January. I've now cycled 1,750km this year - that's already 200km more than the whole of 2006!

In the afternoon I gave Lucas a bike-riding lesson and for the first time he put some real effort in - no doubt in the knowledge that his reward would be 30mins playing Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo emulator I've got on our PC. Twice he managed to get both feet up and pedalling from a standstill without any assistance and he did 3 quite long rides on his own with a bit of help to get going.

Crash Count - 0.
Crashes prevented by protective Daddy running behind Lucas - 1.
No. of times Daddy stood on Lucas' leg by running too close - 1.
Tears -0.
Sweat - yes.
Blood - not this time!

I'm already thinking that in Nov '08 he'll be 7 and can start doing Triathlons! (if he wants to)

I lazed the rest of the day away and slept early. I missed the MotoGP, Giro Finale, a good movie and Judge John Deed due to the continuous evening rain.

Monday

Tired legs today, but already thinking about the upcoming events. 25km Ballbreaker Hash on Sunday. My main concern is to avoid mosquitoes.

I'm also going to sign up for the risque-sounding Fak-Up TT's. I love the Indemnity statement on the application form. It starts "If I die..." !!!

Selamat Hari Jadi!

Selamat Hari Jadi to Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin (The King of Malaysia) and to Mrs Patricia Lillian Dobbie-Holman (my Mum!). Here's a pressie for Mum...latest photos of young Lucas...here showing off the 2-tooth gap he's now got, with one adult tooth poking through...

...and here's a dodgy photo of his recent school photo...real one will be in the post to you soon Mum! He's looking a bit more like his Mummy now I suspect....

Mixed Bag

Kenyir Tri results are out. I was 21st out of 39 in my category and my position in each leg was more or less the same (20-something'th) - suggesting some consistency, which is good I suppose. For the PD tri maybe I'll try a bit harder in the swim.

The KL 10km run planned for Sunday has been postponed so I'm going 144km to Bentong & back with Ah Fook and the PCC gang.

My illness came back yesterday, which rather annoyed me, but it's receded again today. An early night tonight and I should be ok for my long ride.

KRI have posted a load of photos from the Century Ride - they're not that great so I won't be buying the real ones...



At the finish...